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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Snowboarder Jump Cake

Here's the rest of the cake to go with the snowboarder cake topper: a 6" double layer chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and a snow jump. He wanted the snowboarder flying in the air on a day that he finally landed a 360 on his snowboard.The instructions for the snowboarder figure can be found here. The snowboarder is doing a board grab in the air. He's made out of gum paste and weighs 1.5oz. Doesn't seem like much, until it needs to float above soft layers of cake.

Start with the cakes. I just purchased Wilton Bake Easy Strips to insulate the outer edges of the cake pans while baking. My cake decorating aunt told me how to take old rags and t-pin them as she has for years, but these strips are already assembled and come in a pretty fabric. You soak the strips and fit around the cake pan for baking and the tops bake level instead rising to a dome in the centers.

Now to support the snowboarder. This is a total rookie rig, but it's what I came up with while thinking about what I had around the house. I used the top of a pizza box and cut a 6" circle for the base.

Then, I found a piece of Styrofoam and sliced it down to this size. I wrapped the Styrofoam in plastic wrap so the cake wouldn't be against the Styrofoam and then I hot glued the wrapped Styrofoam to the cardboard base. I even put a small dot of hot glue on the bottom of the cardboard piece to secure to the plate.

I thought about cutting the cakes down the middle and then cutting out the square shape, but last second found a square cookie cutter the exact same size as the Styrofoam. I cut through the frozen cakes and spread buttercream on the top of the bottom layer:

Place the cake over the Styrofoam:

Place the top layer and crumb coat. I used one of the square cut outs to create the jump by slicing it at an angle with a serrated knife.

Crumb coat the jump:

After frosting the cake- not concerned about it being smooth and even so it looked more like snow- I piped chocolate frosting tree trunks and green frosting trees.

As long as it is the 2014 Olympics, I thought I'd throw in some Olympic rings.

I used extra gum paste and colored it blue, yellow, black, green and red. Roll it out and use two sizes of circle cutters (piping tips worked well). To connect the rings, as they are interlocking, cut a slit in each and link. It's a little tricky to get the same over/under pattern. The photo above is accurate.

I covered the top of the wooden skewer with a little white gum paste and inserted the skewer through the jump and into the Styrofoam. The snowboarder figure was nice and stable. He didn't budge.

The birthday boy was pretty thrilled with his cake and said it was exactly how he wanted his cake to turn out. His cakes have all had snow themes.

He's outgrowing his starter board, so he'll be picking out a new board and bindings either end-of-season or beginning of next (he said in case he grows a bunch over the summer). I know he'll grow soon enough, but it sure is fun to watch the little guy catch big air. Happy 11th.